Honky Covers – Bastille meets TLC

You know what a cover is, right? It’s when one musician performs another artist’s song, either as faithfully to the original as possible or making it completely their own. One would think that it’s a low-risk proposition – someone else has done the hard work of writing it and making it famous. But it can get scary because somet people get really passionate about their favorite songs and don’t like people messing with it. Especially when it’s the national anthem.

I have a ton of covers on my iPod and it occurred to me that many of them fall into a category I like to call “Honky Covers.” This is where some of the whitest people around cover classic R&B/Hip-Hop songs. Obviously there are some white guys named Justin and Eminem who pull it off with ease. But they made their living IN those genres. The Honky Covers I’m talking about are ones that are performed in a completely different musical style outside of the genre by some of the most decidedly non-funky people around.

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One of The Pieholes is obsessed with the band Bastille. They’re an English band that’s only been around for a couple years and is just starting to make it big here in the States. Here’s their first hit, Pompeii.

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I really like that song and a few of the others she’s played for me are cool. I was checking out a bunch of their videos and came across this cover.

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Ummmmm. OK, maybe this is an example of one that doesn’t work. I’ll do much better next time.

A crappy cover is an affront.
Sometimes though, great covers are found where they are really not expected.
Luther Wright and the Wrongs (a bluegrass band) did a full album cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, which is surprisingly not bad.

And then there’s this painfullly hilarious cover of Guns and Roses – Paradise City

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